Word from Afar
by MaxBrains
Summary: Myzo, a Norn of Creatures Unlimited, a long way into the future learns the truth of Nornir past and present, and makes the future ...


"Myzo, come on! Just try it again."  
"I can't figure it out."  
"Oh, come on! If you fall off the horse, you just have to get back on."  
"What's a horse?"  
"I don't know. It's just something I heard somewhere."  
Myzo turned back around to the piano and attempted to key out the first few seconds of Fur Elise. He did it slowly, pausing intermittently and still repeatedly hitting sour notes. After botching the first few seconds in a few seconds squared he quit, and let his head fall upon the keyboard, resulting in a rather unpleasant chord of some of the higher notes.  
Delah began to play Fur Elise using a few octaves down from where Myzo rested his head. The sound of that famous Beethoven piano masterpiece (even though nobody really knew who Beethoven was) reverberated in it's new, lower notes through the house. Myzo, head flopped sideways on the keyboard, watched his mother's fingers dart about the keyboard with moderate agility. At least until one part, where a finger slipped off the right key and made both of them flinch, although it made Myzo feel a little better himself. Delah could only look toward Myzo and smiled.  
Myzo glared into her face. Everyone always admired her deep green coat of fur and her long, vertically oriented ears with white tips. Myzo always admired her straight brown hair that extends just below her shoulders. He didn't have her white ear tips and kept his hair well trimmed and everything below his ears flush with his fur, but he still looked remarkably like his mother, especially given that his father, Yiro, was a clone made by the Hand of the same genetic material as the very first Norn in the world: the Bruin genome.  
Apparently, no one remembers, but the Hand, who had already identified himself as Max, had told those very first Norns of their origins. Frankly, no one today really cares what their origins were, and none of the few clones care either. Max simply put it, "because I like to create, and I love you." For the most part, it was forgotten.  
Myzo promptly set aside those thoughts and, head still resting on the keyboard, returned a smile to Delah. The two of them could be heard giggling briefly, before Myzo picked himself up and began to play again. He concentrated hard on his playing, and didn't slow down. Despite sour notes, he continued to play on. Eventually his two and a quarter minutes of melodical malady were complete. Again he let his face fall onto the keyboard and rubbed it into the keys. He laughed.  
"I think I'm done," Myzo remarked. "Maybe I'll read a little."  
"That was good. We can do more later."  
"That sucked."  
"No, that wasn't something I'd expect from someone as new at this as you."  
All of the optimism within Myzo evaporated when he heard that. Yeah, he was new at this. Therefore he sucked. He promptly, silently removed himself from the piano and retreated to his room. He then removed a nonfiction book from the bookcase titled "Nornir Evolutionary History" opened it to a random page, and relaxed in bed.  
It wasn't until then that the title struck Myzo. He quickly flipped back to the binding on the back. "Nornir Evolu- ... whoa." Myzo then flipped to one of the earlier pages in the rather thick book, and saw a picture of a Norn. It looked like a familiar Norn. In fact, it looked something like his father. He began reading the text on the opposite page. "Derrick complained of great hunger. Of course, the Hand and everyone else suggested that he eat something. Of course, it was long drilled into his mind that eating was a very bad thing to do. 'Me intensely hungry for starch.' 'Derrick eat seed. What?' 'Me rest.' 'Derrick eat seed! What?' 'Me rest.' This wasn't a case of anorexia nervosa, it was just a case of one very confused Norn. Derrick later starved to death, despite the Hand's attempts to nourish him."  
Myzo was taken slightly aback by what he just read. He had never heard of a Norn like that. It was pretty stupid, he thought. If you get hungry, you eat. That's a given. Yet this Norn, Derrick, did not eat. He adamantly refused to eat. It wasn't because he thought it was fattening, it was simply because he did not want to eat. At first, Myzo just thought it was a fluke event. But he read on. He saw more cases of this simple language and "stupid" Norns. The world around Myzo seemed to disappear ...  
"Me hungry for fat," said a Norn behind Myzo.  
"Maybe eat food? Myzo hungry for starch ..." Myzo didn't even bother to turn around. He heard a door open and close behind him, but being stupid he did not understand it or that he had changed. A little memory aroused within Myzo: eating nuts and seeds relieves hunger for starch. He then went off to find something to eat. He caught the scent of nuts, and headed into that direction. He found a nut on the ground, and promptly picked it up and ate it, and immediately felt less hungry for starch. He did not even attribute hunger for starch with hunger at all. He didn't even recognize the word "hungry" without what that hunger is for. It was just one of three totally unrelated drives.  
The world around the Norn now asleep with a book flopped in his face disappeared in a drowsy flash. Myzo started at the smell of paper and the blackness created by that paper canopy. He then grabbed it and unceremoniously tossed it aside, and gently rose from his bed and sat up. "Weird dream," Myzo mumbled under his breath.  
It was at that time that Max, the Hand, had passed through the wall and into the room with Myzo. It was strange how this immensely powerful "being" would allow itself to become so close to its lowly creations, speaking to them on their own level, and have a name similar to those issued to each Norn from birth, either by a parent or by Max if the parent either cannot decide or intentionally leaves it to the great leader and creator. While Max generally leaves the Norns to their own devices and grants a great deal of freedom and independence, it's still around to police and solve some dilemmas.  
Myzo began to speak. He struggled with a drying throat. "Uh, Max? Could you help please?"  
"Of course. I see you've been reading up on ancient Nornir history." Any doubts Myzo had about this book's authenticity wiped away, but he started to feel a little more comfortable talking to Max. "Why were Norns then so ... stupid?"  
"That was a long time ago. A long time ago my kind were just as bad. In different ways, but just as dumb." What? Its own kind?  
"Your ... kind? There are more like you?" A look of bewilderment dominated his face.  
"Oh, yeah. Many millions more like me."  
"Millions more like you? But, where are they? And there's only 29 of us!"  
"There are many more worlds like this one in existence. A number of us have taken positions as the great Hands you know, each one acting in a different world. There are actually several thousand Norns, Ettins, Grendels and hybrids of these three in existence total. But while these races are spread across many different worlds, there is one very vast world where all of us reside."  
"I thought you lived here."  
"What you see before you isn't me. It's an entity I control from my world as an extension, like a puppet. I too have two arms, two legs, a head and torso. You might say I look slightly like an Ettin."  
Myzo fell back down onto his bed. This is weird. Too weird, maybe, to be true. But whatever Max, the great Hand of their world, says must be true. Wait ... he's just one of several Hands. It must have secrets, and it won't part with them so easily. "Forget it.'  
Max began to retreat back through the wall. "All right. It was kind of sudden, anyway. You'll figure it out eventually. I'm sorry I could not help so much today. Good bye for now. Good luck." 


End file.
